Clearly the gods of geekdom have blessed Vancouver, as Saturday’s nerdy bacchanal at The Rickshaw was so closely followed by Blind Guardian’s performance at the Commodore Ballroom on Monday (and stay tuned for our photo gallery of that show in a couple of days.)

A carnivalesque night of music, performance, and geeky vending, NerdFest’s fifth anniversary show rendered geeky goodness in accordance with the laws of fastidious nerdiness: subject to minimal delays and delivered with maximum entertainment value.

Academie Duello‘s swordplay demo was followed by a brief group instruction workshop, which put cold steel in the hands of initially timid attendees whose confidence dramatically increased with each closely-monitored swing, thrust, and parry.

Casper Macabre‘s fire dance was the literal highlight of the evening: wielding a pair of multi-torch wands, Macabre performed a slow-burning scorcher that would have raised temperatures regardless of the flames.

Fanning the flames, Still Spirits‘ were smuggled in from Maple Ridge in large oak barrels, and spilled out onstage in a whiskey-besotted mess of brassy bluegrass, topped by a zesty washboard solo.

The arm-wrestling rumble profferred by All-Star Wrestling started amicably enough with a few boutsrefereed by vocalist Brian Langley (Tyrants Blood, Aggression), but quickly devolved (as every wrestling match should) into utter pandemonium.

Casper Macabre’s second number was a stomach-churning display of barefoot burlesque over broken glass, but her unflinching Harley Quinn persona revelled at every crunch and pop underfoot.

Despite a mace malfunction early on, Dezi Raider‘s Super Mario Brothers-themed burlesque offered a sexy segue into the next act…

…when crowd favourite The Runaway Four levelled-up the evening’s proceedings, performing a set of both popular and obscure video game tunes that had audience members tapping toes rather than game controllers.